Numbers, Now!

Building a web site to increase your small business’s customer base is a smart move. To do it without Google Analytics would be like taking a rowboat out into the ocean. Once you take that rowboat far enough out into the high waves that you no longer see land, you may as well throw your map, or GPS system into the water. You’re lost and you’re guessing.

Anybody maintaining a web site should have a fundamental idea what the main reports in Analytics offer. They can tell you what is working about your web site and what is not. They can tell you specifically what needs changing. They can tell you exactly how to change it.

Analytics provides numbers and a means for measurement in the relatively uncharted territory of Internet marketing. It's what gives small businesses a sense of safety, while taking risk. It's the tie between old world, traditional marketing with print, radio and television, and the new world Internet marketing.

Until now, there was one major drawback getting the numbers. Analytics was a once a day tool. The numbers update at midnight, and at that point, they are right there for you to check. Well in the Google quest for Internet supremacy, that’s the latest thing to change.

Google announced real time numbers will be coming soon for its analytics program. For the Internet nerdy in the culture of now, that makes a lot of sense. Post a blog on your web site and get immediate feedback. Throw up a Facebook post or Tweet a link back and see who is following it.

Now you can see what works immediately and be able to adjust accordingly. This makes this necessary tool more invaluable. In the past I’ve run my sites with other analytics tools in addition to Google simply for the immediate numbers. Now there’s no need.

For the web master this will be as addictive as checking email. It’s validation of your efforts, now. Good move, Google.

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